A compass can be any magnetic device using a needle to indicate the direction of the magnetic north of a planet's magnetosphere. Any instrument with a magnetized bar or needle turning freely upon a pivot and pointing in a northerly and southerly direction can be considered a compass. A compass dial is a small pocket compass with a sundial. A variation compass is a specific instrument of a delicate type of construction. It is used by observing variations of the needle. A gyrocompass can also be used to ascertain true North.
Compasses were initially used in mysticism in ancientChina. The first known use of Earth's magnetic field in this way occurred in ancient China as a spectacle. Arrows were cast similarly to dice. These magnetised arrows aligned themselves pointing north, impressing the audience. Curiously, it took some time for this trick to get used by the Chinese for naval navigation, but by the 11th or early 12th century it had become common.
Knowledge of the compass moved overland to Europe sometime later in the 12th century. Arab mariners apparently learned of it from the Europeans, adopting its use in the first half of the 13th century.
Prior to the introduction of the compass, wayfinding at sea was primarily done via celestial navigation, supplemented in some places by the use of soundings. Difficulties arose where the sea is too deep for soundings and conditions are continually overcast or foggy. Thus the compass was not of the same utility everywhere. For example, the Arabs could generally rely on clear skies in navigating the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean (as well as the predictable nature of the monsoons). This may explain in part their relatively late adoption of the compass. Mariners in the relatively shallow Baltic made extensive use of soundings.
In the Mediterranean, however, the practice from ancient times had been to curtail sea treval between October and April, due in part to the lack of dependable clear skies during the Mediterrean winter (and much the sea is too deep for soundings). With improvements in dead reckoning methods, and the development of better charts, this changed during the second half the 13th century. By around 1290 the sailing season could start in late January or February, and end in December. The additional few months were of considerable economic importance; it enabled Venetian convoys, for instance, to make 2 round trips a year to the eastern Mediterranean, instead of 1.
Around the same time traffic between the Mediterranean and northern Europe increased, and one factor may be that the compass made traversal of the Bay of Biscay safer and easier.
Mariner's compasses can have two or more magnetic needles permanently attached to a compass card. These move freely on a pivot. A mariner reads this for a reference box mark that representd the ship's headings. The card is divided into thirty-two points (known as rhumbs). The glass-covered box (or bowl) contains a suspended gimbal within a binnacle. This preserves the horizontal position.
The thirty-two points of division of the mariner's compass card. The corresponding dividing points of the horizon circle with four markings of the directions [i.e., east, west, north, and south]. These are called cardinal points. The rest are named from their respective directions. A compass card is a circular card that is attach to the needles of a compass. On the compass card are marked the thirty-two points.
In carpentry, architecture, and shipbuilding, a compass is a curve (or bent) circular form. A compass plane is a craftsman plane, which has a convex direction length on the underside, for smoothing the concave faces of curved woodwork. A Compass saw (or fret saw or keyhole saw) is a narrow blade a saw that cuts a curve. A compass timber is a curved (or crooked) timber. A compass window is a circular bay window (or oriel window).
A Surveyor's compass (or circumferentor) is an measuring instrument used in surveying horizontal angles.
In Botany, a compass is a plant {or flower; also called rosinweed} of the American prairies and is similar to a little sunflower. Its scientific name is Silphium laciniatum. The compass plant has its lower and root leaves vertical. Compass plants tend to align their edges north and south.
In Law, to compass is to purpose (or intend) something. It is an individual that is imagining something or to plot a plan. Compassing signifies a purpose (or design) of the mind (or will), and not carrying such design to effect.